Demand for women lawyers in Indian corporates increases by 30%

Companies such as Crompton Greaves, Citi, Piramal and GE are focused on hiring more women on their legal teams, according to search companies.Rica Bhattacharyya&Maulik Vyas | ET Bureau | March 25, 2016, 08:20 IST

About two-thirds of legal placements made by Michael Page India in the past year at a middle or senior level have been women.MUMBAI: It’s a good time for women lawyers seeking corporate jobs. Data from search consultants suggest a 15-30% increase in demand for such candidates at in-house legal teams in the past 12 months from the year earlier. Not only are companies gaining highly skilled personnel who are seen as excelling men in several key areas, such hires also improve diversity in a traditionally male-dominated work environment, helping comply with new regulations.

About two-thirds of legal placements made by Michael Page India in the past year at a middle or senior level have been women. For legal talent specialist Vahura, almost 50% of hires in the in-house space this year were women compared with 20% a year ago.

Companies such as Crompton Greaves, Citi, Mondelez, Carlson Rezidor, Piramal and GE are focused on hiring more women on their legal teams, according to search companies.

“In 2015, for the first time, we had companies coming in with specific demands for suitable female legal candidates,” said Nicolas Dumoulin, regional director, Michael Page India.

Karl Fernandez, head of the inhouse practice group at Vahura, concurred. “There’s a rising trend to hire female candidates across all levels.

We have seen the rise in sectors such as retail, infrastructure, ecommerce, finance and energy,” he said. “We have seen a few of the large institutional majors have always preferred women in leadership or succession roles in legal. Companies are also keen to create a balanced and diverse team.”

They are also now open to hiring women with strong, past relevant industry experience returning to full-time work after taking a career break, he added.

Among recent senior-level recruitments was that of Farnawaz Mistry, who joined Mondelez as legal counsel for South Asia in January. She was previously a partner at Wadia Ghandy before taking a career break. In late 2015, Nandini Mehta joined Housing.com as general counsel and its first legal head.

WOMEN IN TOP ROLES The fact that companies are seeing the business case in having women lawyers at top levels is clear in the promotion of Sormistha Ghosh. She became the first woman general counsel at Schneider Electric India (for the Greater India Zone), rising from general manager, legal. Another example of elevation is Anjallee Paatil, who heads the legal team at Deutsche Bank. Paatil, who was earlier vice-president (legal), was in the middle of last year elevated to head the bank’s legal function and inducted into the executive committee. Apart from legal acumen, women lawyers score higher on soft skills, according to recruiters.

“Female lawyers, in general, have better empathy and social skills than their male counterparts,” said Franck Courmont, Asia-Pacific general counsel, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group. “Therefore, they handle relationships with colleagues better and have a more subtle approach during negotiations, where big egos of clients can easily be bruised.”

The company, which owns the Radisson and Park Plaza hotel brands, has seven lawyers in the region, of which six are women.

They also seem to be better at handling more things at the same time, said Parveen Mahtani, vice-president (legal), Wadia Group. “Women tend to be good at being a corporate legal counsel due to their ability to multitask,” Mahtani said.

It helps that a lot of women lawyers are looking for in-house roles rather than joining legal firms — which is what most men aspire to — partly because working for a company can be less of a drain on time.

“From the quality perspective, there are much better female candidates available who want to take the corporate route,” said Dumoulin of Michael Page. “There are several good female candidates at senior level wanting to move from private law firms to corporate.”

LESS PRONE TO JOB-HOPPING Company executives such as Mahtani of Wadia Group and SK Honnesh, president (legal) at the Piramal Group, also say women are less prone to job-hopping.

“We have seen women tend to think of long-term association with an organisation,” Honnesh said. “Also, options such as flexi timings and work from home have enabled women to manage work-life balance and that is proving to be a win-win situation for companies as well as women.”

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